Congress has not passed a WRDA bill since 1999 and a great deal of bipartisan cooperation went into finally passing this legislation. The president believes this bill spends too much money. While I agree that we need to reduce overall federal spending, I believe there are plenty of other places in the federal budget to cut that do not impact needed protections for our environment, most importantly our Great Lakes.

The vote on the bill was 81 - 12 in the Senate; 381 - 40 in the House of Representatives. These are veto proof majorities, so one has to wonder why Bush vetoed the bill. He flapped his lips a bit on how "expensive" the bill was, so it appears to be a simple political stunt to try and boost his fiscally conservative bona fides. Kind of tough for a man who has overseen record budget deficits every year of his presidency.